Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. ~ Virginia Woolf

BTT: Let’s Hear It For The Girls!

It’s Thanksgiving here in the U.S. of A. so …
What authors and books are you most thankful for?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

I thought you might ask this question!

It seems like I always have the same answers (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Eco, Sartre, Hesse) to any bit about favorite or most influential. I’ve been thinking about this one, for a week or so, now (I told you, I had a premonition about this question) and I have a brand new list. They’re all women, too, which makes me wonder if I’m entering a new, more Sapphically inclined stage of my reading wherein my late twenties, I am finally getting in touch with my strong feminine side. They are all brilliant and witty, so I hope that I’m not just entering a new phase and I’ll someday grow up to be like all of them.

This is my “Thank you for making my life, just recently, very enjoyable” list:

Deirdre Madden

Audrey Niffenegger

Allegra Goodman

Barbara Kingsolver

Brunonia Barry

A. S. Byatt

*honorable mention: Tana French goes on this list, as well, but she’s not a recent addition.